The chief suspect in the would-be domestic-terrorism bombing of a Colorado shopping mall was arrested today outside another mall:
Earl Albert Moore, 65, was taken into custody by the FBI, but it wasn't immediately clear where he was being held.
Police spokeswoman Kim Kobel told KMGH-TV that a shopper spotted Moore in a coffee shop inside the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. The shopper called 911 after alerting a store manager.
Moore left the store when police arrived, but when officers ordered him to lie on the ground, he complied, Kobel said.
Authorities have been searching for him since the explosives were discovered April 20 at the Southwest Plaza Mall in the south Denver suburbs. The bomb and tanks were found after a fire, but they didn't detonate. No injuries were reported.
There is a high likelihood that Moore was associated with some kind of white-supremacist belief system, since he has tattoos indicating such a background, as well as a history of tax resistance and many years in prison. We'll be monitoring the case closely as a result.
One of the experts interviewed by 9News who (accurately) predicted the search would not last long had this to say about the would-be bomber's motives:
While the majority of his crimes seemed to benefit himself, this latest bombing attempt could have caused serious injuries or death, had the device worked properly.
"This was more a vengeance, more of an attempt to deliver a message to someone or some company or institution," Pence said. "By doing it, it is going to instill fear in a lot of people, particularly when you do it in a public place."
